The University of Otago has finally released details of a planned $50 million development adjoining the proposed Otago Stadium near Logan Park in Dunedin.
[comment caption=What do you think of the university's plan?]
The university wants to relocate several stand-alone activities, including the Unipol gymnasium used by students and staff, Student Health, child-care facilities and the Foundation Studies department, providing more space and freeing up much-needed space on the main campus.
The move would mean an estimated 250 Foundation Studies students annually and more than 200 staff from various departments based at the stadium site, with the facilities expected to attract about 450,000 university visitors to the site annually.
Vice-chancellor Prof David Skegg told a stadium plan change hearing yesterday having a world-class stadium would be "an enormous attraction".
"It would be a real campus hub. It would be one of the most exciting things to happen to the university in its history."
The project would allow the university to expand towards the harbour, and Prof Skegg said he wanted people to be able to walk alongside the Water of Leith through the campus to the stadium.
"There's no question: for the university it would be a fantastic development."
He rejected suggestions the stadium would not attract concerts, when 20,000 students lived close by. There would be synergies between the facilities.
"For example, wouldn't it be wonderful if people could use the gym for an hour before they pick up their children from child care? That is just one example of how the facilities could complement each other."
The stadium facilities would also go a long way towards addressing critical space issues on the main campus, he said.
"The need to provide additional space becomes more urgent each year, with some of our academic departments unable to take on more postgraduate students simply because they don't have the physical space to accommodate them."
A "critical space plan" outlining a $137 million building programme was released in 2005 and about a third of the programme has been completed or is under way.
The university has said the programme had not been completed as quickly as it would have liked because of a lack of land.
The nine-year-old Foundation Studies building in the heart of the campus near the St David Lecture Theatre, "an excellent building", would be retained and reused by other departments requiring more space, he told the Otago Daily Times.
The university also planned to retain the existing Student Health Centre in Watt St, opposite Otago Museum.
The building was inadequate for the health centre's needs and would most likely be taken over as teaching and research space for the health sciences division, Prof Skegg said.
The stadium site is just a few minutes' walk from the Otago Polytechnic and university College of Education campuses, but about a 15-minute walk from the university main campus.
However, both Prof Skegg and Otago University Students Association president Simon Wilson said they did not believe relocating the service to Awatea St would be difficult.
"It is a bit too far away for classes, but I don't think it will be too far away for students who make a special trip to Student Health," Mr Wilson said.
The polytechnic welcomed the proposal to combine the student health centres run by each tertiary institution, polytechnic marketing, communications and customer relations general manager Mike Waddell said.
"A shared health facility would complement the tertiary precinct which is developing in this part of town."
The polytechnic's busy health centre employed seven people and had handled more than 7000 appointments so far this year, he said.
Prof Skegg said if the stadium did not go ahead, the university would still want to build on the land at Awatea St.
Site plans
What: Building of up to 13,400sq m adjoining western side of proposed Otago Stadium in Awatea St.
Cost: About $50m, including $5.6m paid for land purchase.
PROPOSED FACILITIES
• Gymnasium and sports-recreational space to include a new Unipol.
• Relocate foundation studies department.
• Relocate Student Health centres, including new physiotherapy clinic and pharmacy.
POSSIBLE FACILITIES
• Cafe.
• Relocate campus child care facilities.
• Relocate Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit.
